is to provide employers
with skilled workers –
primarily men from
communities of color in the
Twin Cities area – by training
under- and unemployed adults
for skilled jobs that pay a
living wage of at least
$20,000 annually.

Twin Cities RISE!’s success is due to the hard work of hundreds of dedicated

graduates

coaches, teachers, volunteers, donors and employers who support our
participants’ development, and of course the work of our participants
themselves. On the following pages you will meet some of these individuals
and learn how the many faces of TCR! work together to help families break
the cycle of poverty. Graduate Earl Holmes tells you his extraordinary story

obtained jobs earning
higher salaries than
ever before.

of persistence, and volunteer Robin Gotler explains why she devotes so
much time tutoring Awali Place participants like Karim Pierre. Liz Jordan
tells us why she left the corporate world to teach our participants, and
manager John Herbes of Wells Fargo reveals why he hires TCR! graduates
over other candidates. Finally, Jim Frey shares his family’s reasons for
supporting TCR! so generously over the years.
More than any other group in our community, African American men
face the most barriers to success and have few other options for their

1,639 SERVED IN
ALL PROGRAMS

development. We serve African American men through a continuum of
programming that meets participants where their needs are. Awali
Inside/Out provides Personal Empowerment to incarcerated men in
correctional facilities. Awali Place is a first stop for men leaving

1639
176

incarceration or younger men trying to leave the street life, and this year
we opened Awali Place East in Saint Paul’s Rondo neighborhood. Between
these programs and our Core Program, which serves both men and women,

1373
64

1233

TCR! provided coaching, educational training, vocational classes and

269

284

Personal Empowerment training to more than 1,600 individuals in 2007.

456

Despite experiencing an operating deficit, we were able to maintain

686

programming without interruption by borrowing from our board-designated

554

161

reserves. This allowed us to continue to fulfill our mission of placing

554

525

395

413

415
584

534

655

participants into living-wage jobs. Our Core Program graduates in 2007
obtained jobs earning higher salaries than ever before: graduates earned an
average of $25,279, more than five times their earnings the year they

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

entered TCR!.

Because some participants were
served by multiple TCR! programs,
1,602 is the total unduplicated
number served in 2007.

Also in 2007, Mike Bingham, our former CEO and President, returned to
the business world after six years with us. His tenure was marked by strong

■
■
■
■

Core Program
Advancement Institute
Awali Inside/Out
Awali Place

growth across our organization. Mike will continue to serve on the board,
for which we are grateful.
2008 is shaping up to be a challenging year because of the economy.
However, TCR! is a strong organization ready to face those challenges.
With your assistance, we will continue to meet our commitment to those
members of our community who are most in need. Thank you for your
ongoing support of our work.

Special thanks to
departing board members
Phil Davis, Mike Oesterreich,
Mary Rosenthal and
Sandy Vargas for their
many contributions
to our work.

Steve Rothschild
Founder & Board Chair

Peggy Yusten
Chief Operating Officer
3

2 0 0 7 A N N U A L R E P O RT

THE FACE OF THE CORE PROGRAM
TCR!
CORE PROGRAM
The Core Program provides compre-

“You have to realize

hensive training and personal coaching
leading to a living-wage job. We offer

that a person who

more than 25 courses in basic educa-

puts drugs and alcohol

tional skills, vocational skills and

in their body to excess,

Personal Empowerment. Two-thirds of

they’re not

able benefit from their training with us.

caring very much about

In 2007, participants obtaining their

themselves.”

Final Placement jobs earned an average of $25,279 annually plus benefits
and a career path. This is a 565 percent
increase

over

their

pre-program

TRAVIS ANDERSON

active participants achieve a measur-

CORE PROGRAM GRADUATE SPOTLIGHT: EARL HOLMES

income.
“It’s kind of like you’re on a suicide mission, on an installment plan.”

$25,279
plus benefits

Average
Final
Placement
Salary

INCOME
CHANGE

Earl knows that life only too well. “My life prior to TCR! was drugs and
alcohol,” he says. “I never stayed on a job any length of time.”
After 17 years in and out of prison, Earl Holmes came to TCR! to change
his life.
Personal Empowerment quickly began to make an impact on him.
“Empowerment was a big tool for me,” he says. “It helped me realize that I
personally am important, valuable and lovable, and that other people are
too. And once I started loving myself and other people, I didn’t want to live
that old lifestyle any more.”
Earl took courses in TCR!’s operations track and obtained his Final
Placement position as a Material Handler with Mission Foods in April 2006.
He credits Personal Empowerment with helping him navigate challenges at
work. “Prior to that, [any problem] was grounds for me to hit the road,” he
says. “But I hung in there. Empowerment gave me the confidence to believe
that I could be successful in whatever I endeavor to do.”
Personal Empowerment has also helped Earl reconnect with his family.
“They’ve begun to trust me again. I can be a father to my children, a friend
to my friends, and a husband to my wife — things I wasn’t able to do
before.”

$4,472
Average
Pre-Program
Income

4

Earl is now preparing to start college and become an addiction
counselor.
“My thinking is that if I can help one person who was like me, I will have
helped the world.”

2 0 0 7 A N N U A L R E P O RT

THE FACE OF PERSONAL EMPOWERMENT
ABOUT PERSONAL
EMPOWERMENT
Personal Empowerment training is the
backbone of TCR!. It is a cognitive

“My son lives in a

restructuring curriculum that helps parti-

good neighborhood. I’ve been able

cipants learn to control their states of
mind. Most of our participants come
from generational poverty, meaning

to actually save money

that they, their parents, grandparents
and even great-grandparents have lived

over 15 years.”

in poverty for their entire lives. As a

2007 Robert Morris Empowerment Award winneR:
Laurie Sanders

TRAVIS ANDERSON

for the first time in

result, they have learned behaviors and
beliefs that enable them to survive on
the street but not become responsible
or economically secure.
Personal Empowerment helps participants look within themselves to

Laurie Sanders came to TCR! in June of 2006 in search of the skills to get

control their emotions and seek out

a job. “I was unemployed and unemployable,” she says. “I also had low

solutions to life’s challenges. Many

self-esteem and self-worth.”

participants for the first time in their

Like many TCR! participants, Laurie got more than the computer and

lives begin to have hope, because they

interview skills that had drawn her to our program. Personal

know that they can control their own

Empowerment became the most valuable set of skills she received at TCR!.

lives and futures. With hope, they seek

“I use Empowerment every day,” she says. “I use it to hold my head up

education, negotiate disputes, and

during times of stress both on the job and at home. It is an important

defer gratification. They begin believing

and valuable part of who I am.”

in their potential to be successful both

Personal Empowerment helped Laurie obtain the self-confidence and

professionally and personally, which in

equilibrium she needed to launch a career. She has now been employed as

turn leads to self esteem, responsibili-

a Sales Assistant with a computer consulting company for more than a year.

ty and accountability. It is these

“Working full time has enabled me to get off welfare and out of
subsidized housing,” Laurie says.
In the fall of 2007, Laurie was selected as the winner of the 2007

qualities that employers tell us they
value even more than the academic and
occupational skills we also teach.

Robert Morris Empowerment Award. She used the award money to
purchase a computer for her son, who will be starting college in a few
years. She put the remaining funds into savings and plans to use it to
start a retirement account. And she sees herself continuing to grow her
career with Success Computer Consulting.
“It’s a perfect fit,” she says. “I couldn’t ask for more – I truly love my job!”
The Empowerment Award is a monetary award given each year to one Final Placement
who demonstrates Personal Empowerment in action and writing. It is named after
former TCR! staff member Robert Morris, who played a major role in developing and
piloting our Personal Empowerment curriculum.
5

2 0 0 7 A N N U A L R E P O RT

THE FACE OF AWALI
AWALI PLACE
Awali Place offers men assistance as
they re-establish themselves in the

“Sure enough
you can make
mistakes, but
you can

community after leaving prison or the
street

life.

Through

Awali

Place,

participants become part of a supportive community of men who foster each

overcome
those
mistakes.”

other’s personal growth and encourage
positive life changes. Men engage in
Empowerment

classes

and

GED

preparation, with the goal of entering
TCR!’s Core Program, obtaining steady
employment or studying with another
educational or training program. Awali
Place has two locations in the Twin
Cities: North Minneapolis and Saint
Paul’s Rondo neighborhood.

AWALI INSIDE/OUT
Awali Inside/Out works in prisons to
bring Personal Empowerment and transition support directly to incarcerated
men. Participants begin to face the
choices and challenges that have led
them to prison, and they build selfworth and obtain new hope for the
future so that they can give up their former lifestyles. Men are encouraged to
go to Awali Place or the Core Program
following their release so that they can
train for living-wage employment. Some
correctional facility partners allow
participants to engage in a job search
program conducted at Awali Place prior
to release. In 2007, Awali Inside/Out
worked in Ramsey County Correctional
Facility and the Minnesota Correctional
Facilities at Faribault, Moose Lake and
Stillwater.

TRAVIS ANDERSON

weekly work skills coaching, Personal

AWALI PLACE PARTICIPANT SPOTLIGHT: KARIM PIERRE
When Karim Pierre got out of prison, all he had was $100 and some stateissued clothing. He came to Awali Place in search of a job, but at first it
wasn’t easy for him to participate in the Personal Empowerment classes
that are the backbone of Awali. “In prison you feel so secluded, so at first I
couldn’t really open up. I would never talk,” he remembers. “But I started
to feel close to people in the program and it started to motivate me.”
Awali Place staff helped Karim get a subsistence-level job and his own
place to live. Living alone, he says, “keeps me grounded. Before, I never
really took time out for myself. And that’s maybe why my life went that
way. Now I can focus on me.”
Since Karim hadn’t finished high school, his coach encouraged him to
take advantage of Awali Place’s GED instruction. “At first I never thought
I could pass a test,” remembers Karim. “But I passed two of the five GED
tests. And I started to see that Awali Place wasn’t all about just having a
9 to 5 job. It’s about finishing school and having a career, and being
empowered at the same time, knowing that you can do it.”
The support Karim has received from the staff and his fellow Awali
Place participants has played a huge role in helping him start building a
new life. And he wants to share this new life with his daughter. Although
she’s only one year old, Karim is already thinking about how to help her
avoid the struggles he sees in teenage girls dealing with pregnancy, drugs
or abandonment. “I want to be with my girl all the time now,” he says. “I
don’t want her to go through that.”
Karim continues to study for his three remaining GED tests and hopes
to continue his education once this goal is met. “I really want to get a
degree. I want to have a voice in the community and say, ‘Don’t do what
I did.’ I want to show youth that there’s a better way in life.”

6

2 0 0 7 A N N U A L R E P O RT

THE FACE OF LONG-TERM SUCCESS

THE FACE OF TCR! STAFF

TCR! graduates featured in the 2006 Annual Report:

DANI WERNER

“My job has allowed me to
grow and become
independenT.”

“Working at TCR! has
helped me

understand
what service and
personal
satisfaction really
mean.”

Kevin Stewart has been in his Final Placement job with U.S. Bank for two
years, and he is still using the skills he learned at Twin Cities RISE! on a daily

TRAVIS ANDERSON

basis. “I use my communications skills the most,” he says. “I still use them
every day with co-workers.”
Kevin also uses the Financial Empowerment skills that have helped him
move out on his own and plan for future homeownership. He continues to
enjoy his job and plans on being there for a long time. “There are a lot of
things I can still learn from being in the corporate world,” he says. “U.S.
Bank is a company that impacts so many people’s lives. I feel good about
my role there.”

“Empowerment has given
me the confidence to

perform in life.
DANI WERNER

To be able to accept life on life’s
terms and achieve my dreams.”

As an instructor – just one of her
many roles at TCR! – Liz Jordan
incorporates Personal
Empowerment into the classes she
teaches in order to help participants see their ability to succeed

It has now been three and a half years since Kelli Schnobrich obtained her
Final Placement position in the banking field. Several raises and promotions
later, Kelli is doing better than ever in her position as a loan processor.
“I think my family’s greatest success over the past year has been keeping
this home and becoming even more of a family,” says Kelli, referring to the
house she purchased a year ago. “My kids and I absolutely love the house.”
This stability came hard-won for Kelli. She battled addiction for years
before finally achieving sobriety and coming to TCR!, where she gained
self-confidence and vital office skills.
“Obviously my customer service skills and computer skills are still used on
a daily basis,” she says. “But the most important piece I still take with me
everywhere I go is Empowerment.”

in areas like writing or customer
service. “I help them turn failure
messages into ‘I can, I will,’” she
says.
Prior to joining TCR!, Liz had a
long career in corporate management and training. “The bottom
line is people,” says Liz, explaining
why she made the career change.
“At TCR! I’ve realized that as a
person of color I had a responsibility
to share my gifts with others. I’ve
become a better person as a result.”

7

2 0 0 7 A N N U A L R E P O RT

THE FACE OF A CUSTOMER COMPANY
CUSTOMER
COMPANIES
Employers are the customers of Twin

“We give the job to

Cities RISE!, and their hiring require-

the most qualified

ments help set our program standards.
Wells Fargo is a longstanding and

candidate. And the best

valuable partner for Twin Cities RISE!.

candidates
are coming through
Twin Cities RISE!.”

They hire our participants, support our
program financially, sponsor events and
provide us with employee volunteers.
TRAVIS ANDERSON

Over the past eight years, Wells Fargo
has hired 37 TCR! participants into
living-wage jobs – more than any other
company with
which we work.

Cash Vault Operations Manager, Wells Fargo:
JOHN HERBES
John Herbes has hired three TCR! participants since learning about the
organization one year ago. What’s the difference between TCR! participants
and candidates coming from other hiring sources? “Compared to other
services, TCR! is exceeding expectations,” says John. “TCR! helps the
employee know they have value and worth. And that to me as an employer

JOB RETENTION

is good, because if they have value and worth, they’re more productive,

82%
72%
1 YEAR

2 YEARS

more engaged, more willing to learn, and want to grow. This isn’t just a job
for them. It’s the start of a career.”
John has become so committed to TCR! that he even volunteers as a
guest speaker. “Personally, I like to have more involvement with TCR!
because it’s making a difference in the community,” he says. “TCR! isn’t
just talking about the problem of unemployment or having the ability to get
a job, they’re doing something about it. TCR! is an organization that really
believes in what they’re doing, and the outcome of their program speaks
for itself.”

8

2 0 0 7 A N N U A L R E P O RT

Annual Report to Stakeholders Luncheon
The advancement
institute
“We’re not just

What is the Advancement Institute?

changing
individual lives here,

Four hundred people can tell you, after
having participated in our training
sessions in 2007. The Advancement

but the lives of
families, kids and generations to come – we realize
there just can’t be a better
bang for the charitable buck
in the Twin Cities.”
–Keynote Speaker,
U.S. Senator Norm Coleman

Institute is a branch of TCR! that brings
our life-changing Personal Empowerment
training to all parts of the community.
Participants walk away with a wide array
of positive results:
■

Employees learn to strengthen their
communication

Senator Norm Coleman with TCR! graduate speaker
Tyanna Bryant.

and

conflict

management skills.
■

Managers discover how to effectively train and support their staff.

■

Students take responsibility for
their schoolwork and their school
attendance - and teachers notice a
decrease in behavioral problems.

The 2007 Annual Report to Stakeholders Luncheon featured keynote
speaker U.S. Senator Norm Coleman, who highlighted his longstanding

■

to cultivate self-worth in their

support of TCR!’s work. Board member Derek Hayes and employer John

clients.

Herbes of Wells Fargo told the crowd of more than 225 guests why they
believe in TCR!’s outcomes. Finally, Founder and Board Chair Steve
Rothschild spoke about TCR!’s newest initiatives, and TCR! graduates
Tyanna Bryant and Andre Corbett told their stories of transformation.
The Stakeholders Luncheon was sponsored by Wells Fargo, preceded by
a reception sponsored by Faegre & Benson, with additional support from
SUPERVALU and The Hogan Group.

Social service providers learn how

■

Parents learn skills to positively
support their children’s developing
minds.

The Advancement Institute generates
income to offset costs of our programs
and extends our reach to other organizations that can utilize our signature
Personal Empowerment program. In
2007, groups that benefited from this
training include the Jeremiah Program,
The

The Hogan Group

NetWork,

the

University

of

Dubuque, Saint Paul Public Schools,
Minneapolis Public Schools, and many
companies in the Twin Cities.
To contact the Advancement Institute about
training opportunities for your business,
school or organization, e-mail
info@twincitiesrise.org or call
(612) 338-0295.
9

THE FACE OF A DONOR
"We are very happy to be
partnering with TCR! both
because of the significant

change they are effecting and
TCR!’s high level of
accountability to us and
the community."
Jim Frey,
President and CEO, Frey Foundation
The Frey Foundation has been a key supporter of TCR! for the last six years. They have funded our work
through a mixture of pay-for-performance contracts, challenge grants and outright grants. Their consistent
support of our work has helped us grow from serving 400 individuals in 2002 to four times that number in 2007!
12

Recognition Gifts
In Honor of the Marriage of Jennifer Woods and
David Antila
Brenda and Michael Senkovich
In Honor of Merle Kane's Birthday
Lisa Kane
In Honor of the Marriage of Wendy Lehman and
Jeremy Peichel
Ansaf and Wagih Alexander
Cathy Anastasion
Bev and Bob Cooper
Laura and Lonnie Friesenborg
Liz and Dick Hanson
Megan Hockenberry
Shane McFadden
Linda and Bob Ryan
Vidya Sivan
Peggy and Cy Yusten
On Behalf of their Children and Grandchildren
Frances and Richard Prien
In Honor of Steve Rothschild's Birthday
Ellen and Bruce Rothschild
Ruth Rothschild
In Honor of Von Sheppard
Anonymous
In Honor of Bill Svrluga for the Awali Project
John Heydinger

Twin Cities RISE! has taken every measure to ensure
the accuracy of the list printed in this Annual Report.
We apologize if we may have overlooked any organization or individual and ask that you please advise us
of any errors so we may correct our records and
recognize you appropriately.

In Honor of Terry Wade
Judith and James Fetterly

Second Annual Gourmet Dinner at Vincent—A Restaurant
TCR!’s Second Annual Gourmet Dinner was held at Vincent – A Restaurant
in downtown Minneapolis on a pleasantly warm September evening. Chef
Vincent Francoual paired fabulous French wines with each course.
Diners heard from TCR! graduates on how far they had come and how
Personal Empowerment has positively impacted their lives. An auction
closed out the night with auctioneer Corbin Seitz.
Many thanks to Vincent – A Restaurant, Lunds & Byerly’s, and Maserati
of Minneapolis for their generous support, and to Chair Heather Little
and Committee Co-Chairs Judy Earling, Kristi Hykes, Rhonda O’Neill and
Mike Bingham.